Configuring a VMkernel port and enable VMotion via

VMware recommends using VirtualCenter and Virtual Infrastructure Client (VI Client) for provisioning virtual switches. For more information, see the .

For the purpose of troubleshooting or if you lack a GUI, the command line interface can be utilzed to provision virtual switches.

This article provides commands for creating and modifying the VMkernel port.

The VMkernel layer 3 TCP/IP stack handles traffic for the following ESX host services:

• VMware VMotion
• iSCSI
• NFS

Note: VMware recommneds using isolated network for iSCSI.

Solution

Create a VMkernelPort on vSwitch via command line:

esxcfg-vmknic --add --ip=x.x.x.x --netmask=x.x.x.x portgroup
esxcfg-vmknic --enable portgroup

Example:

esxcfg-vswitch –l                                         (List vSwitch)
 esxcfg-vswitch –a vSwitch1                                (Create vSwitch)
 esxcfg-vswitch –A “ISCSI” vSwitch1                        (Create port group)
 esxcfg-vmknic -a -i 10.10.10.33 -n 255.255.255.0 ISCSI        (Assign IP )
 esxcfg-vmknic –l                                             (ListVMkernelPort)

Note: Only 1 VMkernel port is allowed per subnet on a vSwitch.  
If you are unable to set the VMkernel gateway because there are no VMkernel interfaces on the same network, see .

If you are unable to rename VMkernel port, see .

Enable VMotion on vSwitch via command line:

• Enable a VirtualNic to be used as the VMotion NIC.
• Enable and Disable Vmotion via ssh conection with out virtual center

vmware-vim-cmd hostsvc/vmotion/vnic_set [vnic]
vmware-vim-cmd hostsvc/vmotion/vnic_set vmk0

Disabling VMotion Port:

vmware-vim-cmd hostsvc/vmotion/vnic_unset [vnic]
vmware-vim-cmd hostsvc/vmotion/vnic_unset vmk0

Check vSwitch VMotion configuration:

vmware-vim-cmd hostsvc/vmotion/netconfig_get

The output appears similar to:

[root@esxserver root]# vmware-vim-cmd hostsvc/vmotion/netconfig_get
(vim.host.VMotionSystem.NetConfig) {
dynamicType = ,
candidateVnic = (vim.host.VirtualNic) [

(vim.host.VirtualNic) {
dynamicType = ,
device = "vmk0",
key = "key-vim.host.VirtualNic-vmk0",
portgroup = "ISCSI",
spec = (vim.host.VirtualNic.Specification) {
dynamicType = ,
ip = (vim.host.IpConfig) {
dynamicType = ,
dhcp = false,
ipAddress = "10.10.10.33",
subnetMask = "255.255.255.0",
},
mac = "00:50:56:75:a2:64",
},
port = ,
}
],
selectedVnic = ,
}

Note: If you see the following line, VMotion is enabled.